Description of the attraction
The Royal Opera House is much better known as Covent Garden, after the square on which it is located. It is the home stage for the Royal Opera Company of London, the Royal Ballet Company of London and the Royal Opera House Orchestra. The first theater opened on this site in 1732, and was one of two London play theaters (the second was the equally famous Drury Lane Theater). The two theaters were bitter rivals and often staged the same play at the same time. On the stage of Covent Garden there were dramas, pantomimes, ballet and opera performances, including Handel's operas.
In 1808, the theater building was destroyed by fire, but it was quickly rebuilt again. The second fire occurred in 1856 and the building was rebuilt in 1858 by Edward Middleton Barry. The last major renovation took place in the theater in the 1990s.
Since the end of the 18th century, Covent Garden has gained a reputation as one of the finest theaters in Europe. In the 19th century, Italian operas predominate, the theater at one time even bore the name "Royal Italian Opera". The then artistic director of the theater, Michael Costa, staged in Italian even those operas that were written in French.
But at the end of the 19th century, the trend changed, and at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries. operas and ballets by English authors occupy a prominent place in the repertoire; works by Russian composers (P. I. Tchaikovsky, M. P. Mussorgsky, N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov, A. P. Borodin, etc.) are staged. Since the end of the XIX century. the tradition of performing operas in the original language is established, which has survived to this day.
Celebrities such as Maria Salle, Edmund Keane and Sarah Siddons have performed on the Covent Garden stage at various times.
